Andrea Petkovic has been on tour for many years, and she knows very well how to interpret the tennis of her opponents. The German player has just lost to Naomi Osaka 6-1 7-5 in Melbourne. After her match, she was asked to draw a comparison between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams.
According to Andrea, there is a misconception that Serena Williams is used to play only power tennis. However, Petkovic says that should probably the biggest characteristic of Serena Williams is that she is good in every department of the game.
“With Serena, people think she just plays power tennis. Actually, when Serena is playing her best, she is not playing that power tennis. It’s a different way of feeling powerless against her because she really builds a point well. So with Serena, you just have the feeling when she’s playing well that in every part of the game, she’s just that much better. You just feel she’s better in all the departments, just a tiny bit, which is enough to destroy you on court mentally and like, suck out your soul,” she said.
According to Andrea, Naomi Osaka’s main characteristic is her physicality and speed,
“With Naomi, it’s a different feeling of powerlessness where it feels like she’s physically too strong for you, too powerful for you. It just feels like I can’t possibly hit the ball as hard to push her back on the baseline because she’s going to already throw the kitchen sink at me.
It’s like being in a swordfight, somebody is so fast that the only thing you can do is defend. You don’t even have the time to think about attacking. That’s how it feels with Naomi. With Serena, it feels like you’re fighting but for some reason, vou’re getting slit evervwhere all the time. That’s the main difference,” she added.
Osaka in Melbourne, ranking, and results in 2022
Currently ranked no.13, Osaka has achieved a 3-0 match record in 2022. Naomi is currently competing in Melbourne where she defeated Alize Cornet 6-4 3-6 6-3, Maryna Zanevska 6-1 6-1 and Andrea Petkovic 6-1 7-5.
Naomi Osaka will take on the world no.31 Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinal. In the past, they have never competed against each other so far in top events.
The Japanese won 7 titles in her career: all of them conquered on hard courts. (See the list of her titles)
Serena Williams in 2022
Ranked world no.41, the American played her last match on the 29th of June 2021 when she had to retire when playing against world no.107 Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the 1st round and the scoreline was 3-3 .
Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams squared off 4 times. Their actual record is 3-1 for Osaka. Previously, the last time they locked horns, Naomi Osaka won 6-3 6-4 in the semifinal in Melbourne (Australian Open) in February 2021.
You can watch the highlights in the following video.
Andrea Petkovic in 2022
LLWLLWLWWL Now the world no.75, Andrea played her last match on the 7th of January when she capitulated to world no.13 Naomi Osaka 6-1 7-5 in the quarter in Melbourne (draw).
Presently, during this year the German has a 2-1 win-loss record.
Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and Andrea Petkovic |
| Embed from Getty Images |
